A Little Lake Tahoe is Good for the Soul

This update will be quick as Darla and I got home from Lake Tahoe about 5:30 this afternoon and I laid down to watch the start of the Monday Night Football game and woke up during halftime. I know if I don't get to this today, it won't get done as I'll be at work tomorrow until about 8:30 getting caught up from a day off of work. The trip was tremendously relaxing and I feel actually pretty relaxed. I have been overly stressed lately, running my desk, the Sacramento office, the Modesto office and an underwriting desk in Modesto. I've really felt the stress in my neck and shoulders as the entire yoke of my body is sore and I've even had some stress headaches lately. I know this sounds like an employee about to put in for a stress related leave of absence, but I wanted to put into context how relaxing this weekend was.

The condo in Tahoe is located in the Tahoe Summit development on the Nevada side of Heavenly Valley Ski Resort, right off the Kingsbury Grade in Stateline, Nevada. The condos are about 28 years old and unfortunately four stories without an elevator. Darla's dad, Earl just turned 70, but is in great shape from cutting wood on the church's wood cutting ministry (they provide firewood for the elderly and those in need of free wood). Darla's Mom, Frances, has a bad knee and the 60 steps that it took us from the parking lot up to the room was starting to wear on her by the time we left. The good news is that the condo has some wonderful views of the Carson Valley and the eastern slopes of Heavenly Valley. The condo has five buildings and the unit we had was a loft unit on the top floor and consists of three bedrooms and can sleep up to eight. We had six Saturday night as Alicia and Don joined Earl , Frances, Darla and I up in Tahoe.

We met Earl and Frances at the Jax by the Trax diner in Truckee on Saturday afternoon. They had stopped for lunch earlier, but came by and had a sweet roll and coffee with us as we finished our lunch. Jax is an old boxcar style diner right next to the railroad tracks in Truckee. From there we drove up to Stateline through Highway 28 around the eastern side of Lake Tahoe. Lake Tahoe is an absolute jewel of a lake with three distinct colors, a golden green near the shore, an emerald color off shore and a deep blue deeper in the lake.

We went out to dinner at the Chart House in Stateline and watched the sun set over Lake Tahoe. Dinner was excellent with a large salad bar, a good (yet thin) clam chowder that had won awards in Boston, and a great New York strip and Coconut prawns dinner that Darla and I split a plate of. We played cards (3-13) Saturday night and tried weakly to get some interest up in going to the casinos. The condos are located on a dark road about 10 miles south of Stateline off the Kingsbury grade and we decided to hit the sack early.

Sunday we got up early and went to Heidi's for breakfast. Heidi's is the breakfast joint in Lake Tahoe that we like and Don and Alicia had eaten there before. The food is great and although we had a bit of a wait, well worth it. Darla and the ladies went out to the outlet mall after breakfast while Earl, Don and I went to the Cool September Days car show at the Horizon. We saw some very nice cars including a $150,000 1967 Shelby Cobra that was the hit of the show. Carroll Shelby actually owned a Ford dealership in Lake Tahoe in 1968 and sold it in the 90's. There were plenty of 1957 Chevy's and some tremendous Apache trucks and even an original first run Harley Davidson motorcycle from the first year of production. The held gravity drags at the back of the casino that were a hoot. A VW beetle beat a custom Freightliner for the title.

Don and Alicia headed home after that and we went back to the condo with Earl and Frances after stopping to show them the Tahoe Beach and Ski club condo that we've stayed at a couple of times. We took some pictures at the beach as you can see above. We went out to dinner at the Lakeside Inn in Stateline and all of us enjoyed the $10.99 Prime Rib dinner. Earl signed up for a Player's Club card and got a free birthday dinner and a cocktail that Darla and Frances drank for him. We headed back to the condo and watched as the Cowboys self destructed in their loss to the Giants 33-31. We then played a couple of hands of 3-13 and headed to bed.

This morning we enjoyed one of Earl's breakfasts. Darla and her folks had pancakes with strawberry preserves and whipped cream. My stomach doesn't do sweet early in the morning and I had eggs and sausage. Darla and I took off a little after ten and stopped at the casinos and got our gambling fix in, only losing about $60 in the process and having a good time. We stopped for lunch in Tahoe City after stopping at the overlook at Emerald Bay where we had our picture taken by some tourists. The drive home after that was the drive from Hell as we hit construction traffic on both Highway 89 ( a half hour wait ) and Highway 80, finally getting home at 5:30.

This is short, but it is late and I want to relax with Darla. I did play golf early Saturday morning and shot 82 to Boyd's 71 and Matt's 72 and we were off to Tahoe after that. I hope you are all doing well and leading lives that we can all be proud of. Be well. Ciao.

Opening Weekend of NFL Football 2009

It is the Kickoff weekend of the NFL season, just another sign that Summer is slowly slipping away. That, and the rain yesterday pretty well solidified the concept. It was nothing more than a light drizzle that interrupted the tranquility of the golf course and some thunder far off in the foothills that sounded more ominous than it was. I could live in a tropical climate as I do enjoy Summer more than any season. Fall and Spring are close seconds and I abhor Winter as the light stealing, cold, miserable two months (in Northern California) that rob us of our will to go on. The pictures above were made as part of Jennifer's new Flip video camera that has a snapshot feature. You can break the movies down to individual frames and capture those as jpeg images on your computer. We sure enjoyed having Jennifer and Samantha home.

the boys will pack up and head back to Cal Poly this week, both to begin their junior years. Daniel is three years behind David, but much of David's junior college work didn't transfer over to his Architecture major and he fell behind. His 5 year major will take him seven years to accomplish. Daniel is heading back to a house that he will share with some guys from his dorm and David is still trying to arrange housing. We always joke that David should just stay in the Architecture lab because he's there seven days a week anyway. Funny how reality often collides with humor. He is looking to move into a room off campus with two other Architecture students, but hasn't arranged the particulars yet. Daniel will bring his truck with him this year and will load up my old gas barbecue to use while he is in San Luis Obispo. David finishes up his job with his old architecture firm (they brought him back in August to help out during vacations). Daniel will finish up the to do list his Dad has had him working on all Summer and turn in his serf badge and probably be happy to get back to SLO and out of the indentured servant business.

My job has been wearing a bit lately and I accepted an offer from Darryl to fly out to Denver for a long weekend of golf, food and family. Darla and I will fly in on Friday October 9th and stay until Monday October 12th. I look forward to getting away, playing some golf with Darryl and spending time with Darryl and Cheryl visiting and relaxing. He said he plans an outing up to the Rocky Mountain National Park. We will breathe some fresh air, hit the ball extra long n the mile high air and hopefully return relaxed and reinvigorated. I am two days in Modesto a week right now and the commute and disorganization is getting to me. We are slowly sorting out the problems in the office (Pete is there two days a week as well), but it is a big job and it remains to be seen what ends up happening in that office. I have a few candidates lined up to interview.

Today was the first day of our club championship at the Golf Club and the first that I have missed in about eight years. Darla and I will be in Lake Tahoe next weekend hosting Darla's parents, Earl and Francis to a week's stay at the Tahoe Summit Village up in Stateline, Nevada. The condo is a two bedroom condo with an extra loft bedroom, a living room, full kitchen and a wood burning fireplace. It is Earl's 70th birthday and we will go up Saturday and Sunday to enjoy it with them and then leave them the rest of the week to their devices. Again, I look forward to getting away.

I did play golf yesterday and struggled around to a 42+42=84. I was hitting the ball well off the tee, but struggling with my short game. I even lost all sides of the 6+6+6 competition with the guys and lost $15. Darren bought me a beer and Bob bought me lunch. It's good to have friends, eh? I'll play Saturday morning in the first tee time and then Darla and I are off to Lake Tahoe, where we will wear light coats and long pants and build a fire in the fireplace. It should be nice.

The blog will be late next week as I will be gone, so don't look for it before Monday at the earliest.

Jennifer called me this week on my way back from Modesto and picked my brain on football as she is in a fantasy league. I'm in three leagues this year, including one at work. My team name? Corner Office of course. I haven't been able to reach her to see how it turned out.

Well, we are all well. I'm happy to see the boys heading back to Cal Poly. The quicker they get done, the quicker Darla and I get a huge raise (We won't be paying tuition for two guys). I'm hoping they both get jobs next Summer. They need it for the money and need to stop depending on mom and Dad for their support at the age of 22 and 20. I didn't really feel independent until i was paying my own way and making my own decisions. They will realize that as well when they get there and wish they'd done it sooner.

Well, be well this week. I believe that there is yet another game on TV that awaits me. Darla is doing well with her three jobs and I even get to see her a couple of days a week. imagine that. Ciao.

Labor Day 2009

Labor Day. The unofficial end of Summer and I'm not ready. I enjoy Summer more than any other season. I enjoy the long days and the warm Summer nights. I enjoy the pool having water that is almost too warm, the excellent conditions on the golf courses, the family times that come with good weather and the vacations and long weekends that add to the fun. The days are getting shorter and the nights are cooler. The pool water has dropped back to 80 degrees and cooler and some of the infernal leaves from the park across the street have started to drop from the trees and end up in my alcove at the front of the house and stuck in my bushes.

We have had a good weekend this weekend with some pool time, some golf for me, and a night out with friends last night at Benihana's. I am a member of their Captains table and get offers all the time. Their offer in September to celebrate their 45th anniversary is Their Rocky's Choice meal for $19.64 (they started in 1964). So , we went out last night, drank a few Asahi's and enjoyed shrimp appetizers, onion soup, oriental salad, chicken and steak cooked on the teppanyaki table. We had a few laughs and enjoyed each other's company. The group got a big kick out of the fact that I thought diverticulitis was what happens when a skin diver surfaces from the ocean too fast (it's the Bends).

Bob and Vicki picked us up and drove us to dinner and they have a new 2007 Tahoe LTZ. New, of course, to them. it only has 30,00 miles on it and is a champagne color. beautiful car. Bob has always been a new car guy until he heard my explanation of buying newer model cars with about 20,00 miles on the odometer. I said that I'm inherently frugal (my word) and can't stand driving a new car off a lot and losing $10,000. He apparently took my words to heart and bought used this time. The car looks absolutely brand new.

I noticed a break in my front window when Jennifer was visiting. Apparently some Yahoo with a bb gun shot at our house putting a hole in our front window and the bb was still in the dual pane frame. What possesses some punk that doesn't even own a house or likely a car to do that? I'd have preferred that he paintball my garage than shoot at my house with a gun.

I am taking the club championship off this year. It starts next Sunday, but the following weekend we are hosting Darla's parents, Earl and Frances to a week in a condo in Lake Tahoe. We had some extra RCI time on the books and booked a two bedroom condo with a third loft bedroom up near Heavenly Valley. Darla and i are going to drive up Saturday morning (the 19th) and meet them for lunch and then check into the condo. We will stay over Saturday and Sunday nights and then they'll have the condo for the rest of the week.

I did play this weekend and had a great front nine on Saturday. I shot 82, but had a 37 on the front nine (YOU do the math for the back). I left the course frustrated and stewed Sunday. I decided to get out and play early this morning and play the par 60 course in Elverta. We teed off (mel, Boyd and I) at 6:50 this morning and were off the course by 9:45 AM. I shot 36+32=68 and feel much better now than I did on Monday. Sometimes you just have to erase a bad memory. I played with Boyd, Bob, and our current club champion, Jay, on Saturday. one of us had a hole-in-one and you know I would have lead with that in my blog, so congratulations to Jay. It is the second hole-in-one that I have witnessed in my group and I enjoyed my part of a pitcher of Fat Tire beer at the end of our round bought by jay. The club pays $150 for his drinks and I think he spent short of $100, so he actually made some money. We had the third to last tee time, so most of the guys were gone when we came in at 5:30 Saturday night.

We are off to a backyard BBQ this afternoon at Charlie and Freida's, friends from the golf club. We will get there about three and stay until 6 or 6:30 and have some part of the evening to ourselves.

I had a rough week at work and had to terminate a couple of employees this week. I'm now in the Modesto office two days a week and it is slowly wearing me out. I hope to have a replacement in place within a month. Our numbers in Sacramento are stellar and I took the gang out to lunch at Chevy's last Wednesday.

Finally, Darla and I are toying with a trip to Denver to see Darryl and Cheryl in early October. The cost of flights to Denver are cheap and Darryl is dangling the carrot of golf at Arrowhead Golf Club in Littleton. I hope to talk to him today and see when would be a good time to come out and then look into booking our flights.

That is it for this week. Be good, love one another and look to the Lord for answers everyday in your life. Ciao.

Jennifer is 29!!

Oh my God, I'm OLD. Jennifer is 29 years old and I am decrepit and falling apart. Actually I feel pretty good and read an article today in that paragon of excellent journalism, Parade Magazine, that people aged 40-85 who golf have a "40% lower incidence of mortality" than those who don't. An interesting way of putting it. Does that mean that buses miss us on city streets and that we drive better, or just tend to live longer? The article also said that golfers who walk an average of 36 holes a week burn up to 2900 calories and could lose up to 40 pounds in a year. I must eat alot because I'm not losing any weight, either that or I don't get the benefit of the average golfer, because I hit the ball straighter and hit less times. That's the story I'm going with.

The visit from Jennifer, Samantha and Dina was great. Darla and I picked them up from the airport Thursday night and they stayed over with us Thursday night. Friday, we were up early and off to breakfast. Daniel and Becky joined us and we had a great time at the Pacific Street Cafe. We then came back home and took Samantha to the park across the street fro some time on the monkey bars, swings and slides. Actually, I don't recall seeing monkey bars. I think they went the way of the 25 cent hamburger. Sam has a growing set of teeth and she is proud to show them off as you can see in several of the pictures as well as in the video. She is a little ham and likely a carbon copy of Janelle's daughter, Abigail, at that age. She came home and reluctantly took a nap, giving Jennifer and Dina a chance to make a run to the store and also to buy an HDMI to mini HDMI cable for her new Flip camcorder we bought her for her birthday. We were able to hook the camcorder up to our 52 inch HDTV and watch the videos in HD. The Flip is a great little creation from Creative Technologies and the software to make movies and turn the frame shots into photos is incredible. I made a movie of their visit and added music to the background and e-mailed it to family.

Jennifer's Mom showed up in the afternoon and stole them all away to her house. She paid for their trip and they stayed over there Friday and Saturday, putting in some new ceiling fans and lighting in the house and moving one of the ceiling fans to the patio in the back yard. It was about 100 degrees yesterday and Jennifer was up in the attic pulling wiring and sweating. She said that she doesn't sweat as much in Vegas because of the desert dry heat. I remember playing golf in Phoenix during the Summer and never sweating. I had to hydrate constantly and never had to urinate. It is an odd climate. for sure. We saw the kids again today at Chevy's on the River in Sacramento for a late lunch before they were off to the airport for their 3:25 flight. It was a great visit and we enjoyed seeing them and spending time with Samantha.

Their is a huge fire going on in Auburn about twenty minutes east of Roseville and over 500 acres have burned with 30 homes destroyed and countless cars. The news is running constantly and the sight of burned cars and torched homes is sad. Darla is on the phone with one of her team members from Silpada and there is a chance that they will be evacuated tonight. The winds are dying down and the fire is about 40% contained. We saw the smoke on our way home from Sacramento this afternoon, but had no idea of the seriousness of the fire. It is burning near Winchester Country Club that I had a picture of in the blog a couple of weeks ago.

Work is going well, but I have some tough duty this week that will be very difficult for me. I can only ask for prayer as I make some tough decisions. Our numbers in Sacramento are excellent and we are number one in the region for business with one of our largest carriers. It is great to get some good press for a change. I really feel like we have made some serious changes in the office and a turn for the better. I have a great staff and dedicated workers that will see my office continue to grow. It is a blessing.

I did, by the way, play golf this weekend, but the course we played aerated their greens this week and it was an absolute joke. The greens were covered in sand and the ball would jump and bounce like a drunk falling down a flight of stairs. I shot 85 and, like most of the field, left cursing the course superintendent for aerating his greens in August. It was 100 degrees and they were pouring water on the greens to keep them from burning because of all the sand. Our TD knew about the aeration early in the week and decided to go ahead with the tournament which was a mistake. It was a waste of $55 and I wish I had opted to just go play Diamond or something. Too bad. Plus, we were in carts and I might have more of a chance of mortality now.

Something worth a smile for us Republicans suffering the foolishness of Washington:

Body Found In Salt River
Champaign County Sheriffs Department reports finding a man's body in the Salt Fork river just west of the Kelly's Tavern Historical Site Bridge. The man's name will not be released until his family has been notified. The victim apparently drowned after consuming an excessive amount of alcohol. He was wearing black fishnet stockings, a red garter belt with matching bra, and an Obama T-shirt.The deputy removed the Obama T-shirt to spare his family any unnecessary embarrassment.

That is it for another week, I have kept back extra pictures of Miss Samantha that I will sprinkle in to the blog over the next few weeks. I hope you are all well and selling yourselves out to Jesus Christ. Be well. Ciao.

Cool Summer Nights and Ten Years of Wedded Bliss!

That was the theme of the evening as the Burns crew met for a barbecue at the College Greens Swim Club in Sacramento. The weather was like Hawaii with clouds drifting over and a slight breeze that kept things cool. The high for the day on Saturday was 84 degrees and 86 degrees today. The pictures above are of 1. The gathering on Saturday and 2. Dinner out tonight for our anniversary at Scott's Seafood in Folsom. For those of you paying attention, we have been married for thirteen years, but ten have been stellar. I said that to the group on Saturday night and Darla said I was over-estimating. Ah, well.

We got home from our dinner out tonight at 8:30 and both decided that dinner out on a Sunday should only be here in Roseville. We left the house at 5:30 PM and three hours escaped from our lives before we knew it. We are both a bit protective of our Sunday nights and w have some nice restaurants in Roseville. I had bought a $50 gift certificate to this restaurant online for $25 and then used a two-for-one coupon for dinner (Just being true to my self), so the $60 bill cost me just $15 out of pocket tonight and that was just for the tip for the server. We enjoyed ourselves, but it was a haul on a Sunday night and neither of us are huge seafood lovers. Darla had some coconut shrimp on skewers and I had a pasta with scallops meal that was good. We both had clam chowder and shared a plate of shrimp and pork pot stickers and a lava cake for dessert. There was another couple there celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary and it was also on August 23rd.

Jennifer and miss Samantha will be here this coming weekend. I'm taking Friday off and will spend the day with Jennifer, Sam and Dina swimming in the pool and relaxing. Friday is Jennifer's 29th birthday and I'm getting old. Next year, I'll have a daughter in her thirties. Wow, hard to believe. I have ordered Jennifer a new Flip pocket HD camcorder that will take two hours of film on it's built in hard drive. It has a built in USB plug in that swings out and attaches right to your computer for download. She can also buy video cables where she can watch the movies on her TV. I hope to be able to add some mpeg files to the blog so you can all see young Samantha as she grows up. She is a doll. I'm not letting anything out of the bag as I had Jennifer research the Flip to see if she would use it. It is almost as small as a cell phone and fits in your pocket. Pretty cool device. I had heard of them and saw one on "Army Wives" on cable and decided that I needed more ways to get my Samantha fix and will be pushing Jennifer to use the Flip and send me movies. I will add some pictures from their trip next Sunday.

I did get out and do some marketing this week and took our largest agency principals golfing at The Ridge Golf Club in Auburn. It is a great championship course in the foothills of Auburn and I have struggled on that track before, twice shooting in the 90s and my best was an 84. We had lunch before golf on a $45 lunch and golf deal and I enjoyed visiting with the owners. Walt, the managing partner asked me to come up with an incentive for them where we would take them golfing at Pebble Beach if they reach a certain incentive. I talked to my boss and we are looking at a couple of $20,000,000 construction projects in LA and he agreed that if we close the smaller of the two, I could promise a round at Spyglass, if they close the bigger of the two, Pebble Beach and if both, two days in Monterey at Pebble Beach and Spyglass. The income to BW would be about $100,000 and the trip would cost us $2,000-$3,000. I was thrilled and will begin pushing to close these two deals immediately. Financing has been the holdup so far. i shot 42 on the front and had to pour in a ten foot par putt on 18, but ended up with a back nine 41 for 83. Walt shot 90, Rob 82 and Anthony 110. We had a fun day and plan to get together soon at Walt's club in Lake of the Pines for another round.

I also played Saturday and struggled at Diamond Oaks to a 43+43=86 and a sick feeling in my stomach after the round. I hate to play bad golf, but I was out of sorts on Saturday. We play an away tournament at Timber Creek in Sun City Roseville on Saturday the 29th. It is an amazing course designed by Billy Casper that is a real test of golf. Why it is sitting in a senior community is beyond me as it is well over the head of the average golfer. On top of that homes dot the course and because it is a senior development someone is ALWAYS home. It was written up in the paper a few weeks ago as the local course where more homes are hit by errant golf shots than any other course. Good combination of pacemakers and flying golf balls. The ambulances in the development are know as "Sun City taxis". I'm sure Dad and Shirley have heard that description before.

I have some issues at work right now that are taking my full attention. I have a phone conference with home office human resources on Monday and everything should be resolved this week. It is stressful and I've really felt some pains in the yoke of my neck and shoulders over the last week. If it keeps up, I'll have to call on my Bowen therapist before my next scheduled session in September. I had my boss in the office this week and we were meeting with the new Transportation unit that I've set up. We also had the head of the Transportation underwriting unit from our main auto market in the same day, so I didn't get a whole lot of work done. I worked late Friday, had a poker game Friday night and early golf Saturday morning, so Darla and I slept in today and missed church. We don't do it often, but every now and then your body tells you to slow down. I listened today.

That's it for this week, I'll be back with photos of the cutest granddaughter that you'll ever meet. Have a good week and heed this warning: "Without Jesus, there will be HELL to pay". Ciao.

Hot August Nights

Not really, but I was looking for a Title for my latest epistle and this is what I came up with. The Summer is quickly slipping away and I see high school kids with backpacks and shorts trudging to school in the morning as I navigate my way to work in the early dawn light. My automatic headlights stay on now on the way to work as the days grow shorter. The good thing is that the temperatures have returned to normal (mid nineties) after a cool Summer. The bad thing is ditto as I have a golf game with two of my agents and my top underwriter on Tuesday at the Ridge golf club in Auburn. The temperature Tuesday is supposed to be 101 degrees. We are meeting them for lunch at the lodge and then play in the afternoon. My office will have a family Day on Saturday at a swim club in Sacramento. The club has high dives and horse shoes and sand volleyball. Darla and I are providing hamburgers and chicken breasts with buns and each family is bringing different items (salads, fruit, desserts, etc.) Several of the employees have begged off due to other plans, but we should have a good turnout. My newest underwriter is on the board of the swim club and got us access at no cost.

I had to order a part for the pool sweep tonight and I just love the internet. I was able to go online and order the part (a replacement bag) for $35 delivered to my office. I do most of my own shopping now on the internet. I'm looking at getting Jennifer a new Flip digital camcorder for her birthday and to encourage her to send us movies of young Samantha. I'll be able to order it and have it delivered to the office at no tax and no shipping. It is so convenient.

Darla has one of her newer recruits for Silpada with a husband who likes both golf and poker. She has been trying to hook us up and I talked to Chuck today (he called me) and I invited him to my poker game this weekend. he and his wife, Pam, want to go to Monterey with us this year. I just signed up for the trip October 30th-November 1st on Friday, I went online to search for a good priced hotel. I am a believer in Priceline as long as you use a hotel with 3 plus stars. I put in a 3.5 star hotel in Monterey and offered $89 a night. We got a lodge room at the Portola Spa and Hotel on Fisherman's wharf for my asking price. When I told Bob about it, it turns out Vicki had gone to the hotel website and also booked a comparable room for $189 a night. Wow.

I played golf both Thursday and Saturday this week. I played at Wild Hawk in Elk Grove Thursday and it is a bit of a cow pasture golf experience. Neil, our TD, has signed a contract to play there next year for $65 a player. It is too much. It cost me $31 and I shot 39+40=79. The course is 6200 yards, but has two holes less than 295 yards (par fours). I also played in the Rose Cup qualifier. It is my goal every year to play in the Rose Cup and I haven't been on the team for three years. I missed again this year with a 43+39=82 at Diamond oaks on Saturday. I had three holes where I was a combined 7 over par. I came to number 8 at 2 over and went double bogey, triple bogey on 8 and 9 for a 43. I then went bogey-par-double bogey on the back nine with three lip outs. I was proud to pull my game together and finish with five straight pars on the back for the 39. It wasn't pretty, but there were times in my golf life when I would have shot a 44 on the back for an 87. Nice to see at age 53, that I've finally matured as a golfer.

I have two things to share. One is the 2009 Stella awards. For those unfamiliar with these awards, they are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued the McDonald's in New Mexico, where she purchased coffee. You remember, she took the lid off the coffee and put it between her knees while she was driving. Who would ever think one could get burned doing that, right? That' s right; these are awards for the most outlandish lawsuits and verdicts in the U.S. You know, the kinds of cases that make you scratch your head. So keep your head scratcher handy. Without further adieu, the 2009 Stella award winners are:

*SEVENTH PLACE* Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas was awarded $80,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The store owners were understandably surprised by the verdict, considering the running toddler was her own son. Start scratching!
* SIXTH PLACE * Carl Truman, 19, of Los Angeles, California won $74,000 plus medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps. Scratch some more...
* FIFTH PLACE * Terrence Dickson, of Bristol, Pennsylvania, who was leaving a house he had just burglarized by way of the garage. Unfortunately for Dickson,the automatic garage door opener malfunctioned and he could not get the garage door to open. Worse, he couldn't re-enter the house because the door connecting the garage to the house locked when Dickson pulled it shut.. Forced to sit for eight, count 'em, EIGHT days and survive on a case of Pepsi and a large bag of dry dog food, he sued the homeowner's insurance company claiming undue mental Anguish. Amazingly, the jury said the insurance company must pay Dickson $500,000 for his anguish. We should all have this kind of anguish. Keep scratching. There are more...... Double hand scratching after this one...
*FOURTH PLACE* Jerry Williams, of Little Rock, Arkansas, garnered 4th Place in the Stella's when he was awarded $14,500 plus medical expenses after being bitten on the butt by his next door neighbor's beagle - even though the beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. Williams did not get as much as he asked for because the jury believed the beagle might have been provoked at the time of the butt bite because Williams had climbed over the fence into the yard and repeatedly shot the dog with a pellet gun. Pick a new spot to scratch, you're getting a bald spot..
* THIRD PLACE * Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania because a jury ordered a Philadelphia restaurant to pay her $113,500 after she slipped on a spilled soft drink and broke her tailbone. The reason the soft drink was on the floor: Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument. What ever happened to people being responsible for their own actions? Only two more so ease up on the scratching....
*SECOND PLACE* Kara Walton, of Claymont, Delaware sued the owner of a night club in a nearby city because she fell from the bathroom window to the floor,knocking out her two front teeth. Even though Ms.. Walton was trying to sneak through the ladies room window to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge, the jury said the night club had to pay her $12,000....oh, yeah, plus dental expenses. Go figure. Ok. Here we go!!
* FIRST PLACE * This year's runaway First Place Stella Award winner was: Mrs. Merv Grazinski, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, who purchased new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home, from an OU football game, having driven on to the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver's seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the motor home left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Also not surprisingly, Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not putting in the owner's manual that she couldn't actually leave the driver's seat while the cruise control was set.. The Oklahoma jury awarded her, are you sitting down? $1,750,000 PLUS a new motor home. Winnebago actually changed their manuals as a result of this suit, just in case Mrs. Grazinski has any relatives who might also buy a motor home.
Are we, as a society, getting more stupid.... Or are more members of Congress serving on juries these days?

Okay, and here my political bent shows up: WHO AM I?

I was born in one country, raised in another. My father was born in another country. I was not his only child. He fathered several children with numerous women. I became very close to my mother, as my father showed no interest in me. My mother died at an early age from cancer. Later in life, questions arose over my real name. My birth records were sketchy and no one was able to produce a legitimate, reliable birth certificate. I grew up practicing one faith but converted to Christianity, as it was widely accepted in my country, but I practiced non-traditional beliefs & didn't follow Christianity, except in the public eye under scrutiny. I worked and lived among lower-class people as a young adult, disguising myself as someone who really cared about them.. That was before I decided it was time to get serious about my life and I embarked on a new career. I wrote a book about my struggles growing up. It was clear to those who read my memoirs that I had difficulties accepting that my father abandoned me as a child. I became active in local politics in my 30's then with help behind the scenes, I literally burst onto the scene as a candidate for national office in my 40s.. They said I had a golden tongue and could talk anyone into anything.. That reinforced my conceit. I had a virtually non-existent resume, little work history, and no experience in leading a single organization. Yet I was a powerful speaker and citizens were drawn to me as though I were a magnet and they were small roofing tacks. I drew incredibly large crowds during my public appearances. This bolstered my ego. At first, my political campaign focused on my country's foreign policy. I was very critical of my country in the last war and seized every opportunity to bash my country. But what launched my rise to national prominence were my views on the country's economy. I pretended to have a really good plan on how we could do better and every poor person would be fed & housed for free. I knew which group was responsible for getting us into this mess. It was the free market, banks & corporations. I decided to start making citizens hate them and if they were envious of others who did well, the plan was clinched tight. I called mine "A People's Campaign" and that sounded good to all people. I was the surprise candidate because I emerged from outside the traditional path of politics & was able to gain widespread popular support. I knew that, if I merely offered the people 'hope' , together we could change our country and the world. So, I started to make my speeches sound like they were on behalf of the downtrodden, poor, ignorant to include "persecuted minorities" like the Jews. My true views were not widely known and I needed to keep them unknown, until after I became my nation's leader. I had to carefully guard reality, as anybody could have easily found out what I really believed, if they had simply read my writings and examined those people I associated with. I'm glad they didn't. Then I became the most powerful man in the world. And the world learned the truth.

*Who am I? * I am ADOLF HITLER, WHO WERE YOU THINKING OF?

That's it, I retire the soapbox for another week. Ciao.

Booted out of the house for Silpada...Again

So, instead of golfing, I decided to re stain the fence surrounding the back yard. We had the fence put in three years ago when we had the pool installed and I stained the fence with a Behr Redwood stain with water repellent then and I still had about 2/3 rds of a five gallon can left. The wood had been sun scorched and much of the stain had faded or worn off. It isn't a task that you plan to do, it just sort of happens. Darla had another retirement party today from 1-3 PM at the house (this is where she offers her "retired" jewelry at 50% off and previews the new jewelry in the catalogue). She encouraged me to go play golf, but I played yesterday and money is a little tight right now because of the brakes we had done by the boys, so I stayed home and re-stained the fence. Darla gets a little goofy when her parties are on and was irritated that David and I were at the house. I went out to work on the fence when she left for the store at 11:30. When she got home, I innocently asked if she could put some sunscreen on my back and she about took my head off. She really wanted me gone. I was thinking of the tongue lashing I'd get if I worked all afternoon and sunburned my back. It was a no win situation and she came out and brought me some cold drinks when there was a lull in the party and was apologetic. Stressed a little bit?

The golf club had a tournament at Ancil Hoffman this week, but this was the weekend we had planned to be in Las Vegas. Jennifer worked it out with John to trade this weekend for her birthday weekend, so we didn't have to spend $400 to go babysit. Jennifer will be out in Sacramento for her 29th birthday as her Mom is flying she and Dina (her roommate) out to help her install some ceiling fans. Of course, young Samantha will be in tow. At any rate, I missed the tournament and set up golf with Matt and Darren at Diamond. I shot 80, Matt shot 74 and Darren shot 85. I won the skins as I kept picking up the carry over skins. We had a good weekend.

Darla and I went to a couple's shower at Anthony and Erin's house in Roseville. Matt was there and Pete and Vicki showed up as well. They were expecting more people from the office, but they didn't show in the time that we were there. Anthony has a nice home in Roseville, two stories with a pool and the kids were all out swimming.

Darla and I walked for the first time since her injury last night and walked over to the video store to pick up a movie to watch last night. She complained about some soreness in her foot afterward and she hasn't technically been cleared to walk yet, but it was nice to stretch our legs.

Work is going great. We had a great July made even better by a mid year contingency check from one of our companies that came in mid July. It pushed us over budget for the year, which is awesome. We are up about 45% with this company and on track to write about $4,000,000 with them this year with a 7% loss ratio. Anthony writes a small artisan program with them and books about $30,000 in new business every month. Anthony has turned into a true superstar within the company and is third in the company in new business production through mid-year. He was my assistant just three short years ago and it is one of my best decisions to promote him. Pete had a great month in July and is tracking for the same this month. He has had four months this year over his personal best from his past three years, so things are truly looking up.

Darla's job is solid in spite of the failing economy and furloughs that abound with state workers. They are having to cut services in some instances, but so far the agency is doing good.

David and Daniel continue to work odd jobs this Summer. Dan is off on a week long vacation with his girlfriend, Becky, and her family. David was working tearing down an old metal shed in his Dad's backyard. He had a screw that was frozen and was putting pressure on the screwdriver and slipped and the sheet metal tore into his hand above the middle finger of his right hand (his driving finger Darla calls it). He had to rush to emergency and it took five stitches to close the wound. Luckily he wasn't in Canada or they would have given him a Band Aid and an Excedrin and told him that stitches are only done on Tuesdays. Shirley had an incident with a cut thumb and the medical tech at the Emergency told her they weren't doing stitches that day. And Obama and Hillary (Frick and Frack) want socialized medicine in the US. God be with us.

You can see in the pictures included with my post the cut back palm garden in the raised bed above the pool. I did that last weekend and the fence today. It took me four hours to stain all of the fence and I didn't end up with a sunburned back. Darla's party went well although she didn't have a lot of guests, but those that did come were buyers.

Finally, you see the picture of Winchester CC at the top of the blog (double click the picture to see this picture as it is intended). The Country Club was a dream of one of the area's largest home builders. He spent 20 years and countless millions building the course, which at it's height commanded $100,000 for a membership with a monthly fee of $600. It was one of the most exclusive country clubs in California. Unfortunately, the housing market killed the development. Homes were built there and the CC&Rs did not allow a home smaller than 5000 square feet to be built. The clubhouse (bathed in lights above) is 35,000 square feet and a jewel of design and engineering. I took a group of my agents there on Wednesday for $75 per player with a cart at noon. The course is 6,500 yards from the blue tees with a slope of 134. I shot 84 and thoroughly enjoyed myself. People always asked me why I haven't joined a private club. This is the best example I can find(plus I'm cheap). Can you imagine the angst these members feel as the course goes through bankruptcy? What will happen to their $100,000, plus they have to put up with guys like me, who drive up, plunk down $75 and play their dream course. I'm really not prepared to marry a golf course at this point in my life. There are far too many great courses left to play.

I hope you are well, happy and healthy. Be good and keep Jesus as the head of your household. Ciao.

August Already?

So what happened to the Summer? Time has rushed by this Summer and the Sunday ads are all about Back to School. Classes will begin later this month, NFL camps are under way and the first preseason football game is next weekend. I guess time really does fly when you are having fun.

Work continues to get better with each passing month. Our office was up 23% in earned income this month and up about 22% in policy count. I am also up in staff as I added an underwriting trainee, we added two with the purchase we made and have added another part time typist who starts Monday. Our service standards in typing have been eroding the last few months and I've been begging for a new typist and the position was finally approved last week. I wasted no time in hiring someone and actually am bringing in an ex employee of one of our retailers who was caught in the downturn. She is over qualified for the position, but will be good bench strength as we continue to grow the office. She felt the same way and is hiring on with an eye to moving up within the organization when an opportunity presents itself. She is a Type A personality and hopefully she doesn't bowl over the other typists, who tend to be an introspective lot.

Darla got home from Kansas City last Sunday with many tales from her trip. She enjoyed herself and enjoyed herding her seven recruits around at the conference. I picked up Darla and one of her team members and her teammate kept going on about how EVERYONE knows Darla, she can't walk around without someone stopping her. There are 7,000 women at the conference, so I'm guessing it was a bit of an exaggeration.

The weather here has cooled into the upper 80's and it is fantastic. It is still warm during the days, but with cool nights and mornings. I took advantage of the cooler weather and took a couple of agents out golfing this past week to Woodcreek and up to the Country Club in Auburn, California. I've begun struggling with poor front nines. I shot 43+39 both days for 82. I played Saturday and had the same problem, but followed it up with a 43 on the back for an 86. I'm turning into a hacker. I have another marketing golf game on Wednesday, when I will take the two men who met with my CEO off hours out to golf at Winchester Country Club. It is the most exclusive and best country club in Northern California, but the developer went into bankruptcy and the course is now open provisionally to the public for $75 after noon. It is a tough track in beautiful Meadow Vista, California in the gold country foothills. I'm looking forward to it.

Jennifer will be out with Samantha and her roommate, Dina, over Jennifer's birthday weekend. I've invited them out on the Jet Ski at Folsom lake, but they are being brought in by Jennifer's Mom ostensibly to put in some lighting in her home, so we'll see. I'm still carrying a little matchbox car that was in the base of Samantha's car seat after Alamanor that I'll return to her when they get here. I also plan to buy Jennifer a camcorder so she can send me movies of Samantha when we can't see her.

The boys are home and doing odd jobs for money. I had them change out the brakes, rotors and pads, last week and paid them for parts and $75 each for the job. It saved me about $175 on what the brake shop would have charged and they made a few bucks. They are also fixing up their father's rental home so he can get it rented. Finally, they have fixed up one of his old pickups so they could drive it to the dealer and get the $4,500 that Obama is giving to every American to trade in their clunker and buy a new car from the bankrupt car companies. Unfortunately, most Americans are doing what Steve did and are buying Toyotas or Nissans. I don't know what he is paying them this Summer, but they are slave labor for him.

I did some work on the pool this weekend, cleaning the tile and reapplying some of the waterproof sealer on the river rock surrounding the pool. I also trimmed back the Sego palms and installed a drip watering system to the plants surrounding the palms. I'm hand watering the palms (once a week) and I installed some fertilizer stakes to help green them up. They were getting a little yellow on the leaves from over watering.

Well, news is at a premium around here and I could bore you with our trip to the bookstore and dinner last night, but I'll save you from that. Darla is on the phone right now working her Silpada business calling potential party hosts, so all is normal here in Northern California. I hope you are all well. Ciao.

Once More a Bachelor to Silpada

Of course, more pictures. The picture of Daniel and Samantha is great. It looks like she is saying, "Dude, let go of some of that shake, I'm hungry!" The picture of Earl is of a hat that Don got me because my car is a pimp car. I don't know why I should dress up like Chef Boyardee, but whatever. The picture of David and Taylor was taken fro Darla's brother, Steve, so he could see his daughter in her dress "whites". She is an MP in the Navy and stationed at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Darla is off to Kansas City this weekend with seven of the women on her team. It is the annual conference and there are 400o Silpada reps invading Kansas City. I played poker last night and she called me about 9 PM forgetting that I was in a poker game. I'm surrounded by five men and she says, "Tell me you love me and want to kiss all over me." I said, "Did you spend any money today?" She said, "No, we were in conference all day." I said, "I love you and want to kiss all over you".

Darla was put up in a suite that overlooks downtown Kansas City and has two bedrooms. She was at a Sterling Club event Thursday night for S=tar Leaders and had dinner with the founders and 1000 of her closest friends. I have to pick her up tomorrow night and decided to get the blog out of the way tonight.

I have been playing a lot of golf recently, adding in some marketing golf with agents. I played Woodcreek on Tuesday and shot 81, I played Mather Golf Club on Thursday and shot 78. We played with two golfers from Jesuit High School, who will play on the Claremont Golf Team in Los Angeles this Fall. Both of them could hit the ball a mile and they played from the blue tees at 6900 yards and I played the white at 6500 yards. They were hitting it fifty yards past me, but I shot 37 on the front and they shot 37 and 36 respectively. They quit after nine and I shot 41 on the back while my agent shot 49. I played a practice round today at Diamond for our two man blind best ball tournament tomorrow and shot 42+42=84. Hopefully, I was saving up for the game tomorrow. Boyd shot 76, Neil 90 and Mel 94.

I got home with every good intention to clean the pool and relax on the pool, but fell asleep on the couch at 1:30 and woke up at 4:00PM. I did clean the pool, trimmed the bushes and ground cover and edged the front lawn. I have some spaghetti thawing in the kitchen for dinner tonight.

Work is going well and we exceeded budget last month and will come close this month. My assistant has left and moved to Thailand and Cora, Mel's wife, is now working as my assistant. I have my old assistant, Dinda's, daughter, Toni-Anne starting with us on Monday. Toni-Anne is Cora's niece. It is one happy family. They are all excellent workers, very diligent and hard working. I look forward to Toni-Anne joining the team. She will work for Pete, who is my number two underwriter in the office and a guy who is on the cusp of really getting his business humming. Toni-Anne is a graduate of UC Davis with a degree in Psychology and she has worked for a workers compensation and employee benefits company for the past four years. She will be able to handle Pete and help him get his business booming.

Well, dinner awaits and a movie afterward. I may take a night swim tonight. it was 97 degrees today and expected to surpass 100 tomorrow. I hope you are all well. Be good to each other. Ciao.

New BLING for Darla

After seeing Jason's parent's Explorer at the lake, I went on E-Bay and bought Darla a billet grille for her car for $30. I can't believe how cheap these grills are. This one is actually a replacement grill for the stock Ford grill. They are plastic with a chrome spray that is polished to a high gloss. You can't tell here (it was twilight by the time we got out of the pool and I installed it), but double click on the picture to see the grill in all it's glory. No more plastic grills for us. Now Darla has a little pimp in her ride, too.

More Almanor Memories

Lots more pictures where these came from as Darla took 230 pictures during our vacation (luckily we have the 2MB smartcard). Most of these pictures are of Samantha and we had most of a week without her, so there are a lot more pictures, but we had such a good time and it's my blog, so I'll relive those now. There will be plenty of other pictures of our week in Almanor to be shared in the weeks ahead. These pictures are off of the Canon Rebel Digital camera, where the pictures last week were from the Canon CoolPix camera that I bought for Darla at Christmas. I haven't spoken to Jennifer since I dropped she and Sam off with her Mom. I tried calling her from Almanor on Friday, but just got her voice mail. You can see the picture of Samantha in her swimsuit and sunglasses. The funny thing is that unlike most 18 month olds, she prefers to have the sunglasses on when she is outside.

Our jet ski performed extremely well while we were in Almanor and we had no issues. We do have a broken fuel switch and it was turned half off and Jennifer struggled with the ski our first day out. I had her bring it in and Daniel and I were able to turn it to fully on and we had no further problems all week. We take the ski in every Spring and have Yamaha summerize the ski and it seems to really help us. It started right up every time and it was a no brainer for us all week.

The rest of the week was fun and relaxing. We played cards and relaxed in the sun and while the temperatures in Sacramento were 107 degrees, it was a comfortable 92 degrees in Almanor with an overnight low of 52 degrees. You have to love the mountains. I was able to make it out and golf. I went to the Lake Almanor West resort which is a 9 hole course and it wasn't well maintained last time I played it. We were able to play for $20 last time and it was $35 this year. They must have a new greens keeper because the course is immaculate. The greens are tremendous and they have stopped the practice of having two flags on each hole and one being the front nine and one the back. They have a new set of tees and that differentiates the two nines. I played alone in front of the Men's group and played two balls (I asked them if it was okay as I was stuck behind a threesome of old men that were playing the women's tees). I shot 41+40=81 and was very happy with my game. The course is relatively short, but cut into the pine trees of Almanor and very tight. I drove into town afterward and enjoyed a barbecued hamburger at The Depot.

Time was short when Samantha was with us and I wanted to enjoy the days, so we didn't make it out to Paul Bunyon's while she was there (it is like a Tastee Freeze or Dairy Queen), but Darla and I did steel off Friday afternoon and enjoyed some ice cream together. Jennifer had bout a 1/2 gallon of ice cream and the boys ate that during the week.

Earl and Frances planned to treat us to pizza again to celebrate their 49th wedding anniversary. Alicia's boyfriend Don decided to surprise them with dessert and when he went to pay for the dessert at the end of the night, they stuck him with the whole bill. Don made an announcement to the entire restaurant that it was Earl and Frances' 49th wedding anniversary and they had several people come by and wish them well. Earl was asked his advice on 49 years of marriage and he said simply, "Watch your tongue". Excellent advice for all of us.

We hope to be back in Almanor next year in August to celebrate Earl and Frances 50th wedding anniversary and plan to invite the brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, for a full week. We hope to have Jennifer and Samantha join us again next year.

Well, dinner awaits my barbecuing skills as chicken breasts are on the menu, so I have to run. I did play golf today in the 107 degree heat as Darla had a "retirement" party at the house, where she sells the pieces of jewelry being replaced in the new catalog at a 50% savings. I figured I could stay at the house and help women try on rings and necklaces or play golf. I shot 84 in the sweltering heat of the Cherry Island golf course. Boyd shot 78, Bob 80 and Matt 83. We more survived the day than conquered it as we teed off at 11:00 AM and finished at 3:00 PM. Darla is off to her annual meeting with Silpada in Kansas City next weekend and I'll be all alone with nothing to keep me occupied but golf, poker and the pool. Say a prayer for me. Be well. Ciao.